Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar on Wednesday consulted Foreign Affairs Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan and Commerce Secretary Asif Shah, in a video conference, for outlining future strategy after India did not certify Pakistan''s claim wherein it accused New Delhi of denying concessions under South Asian Free Trade Agreement (Safta).
Official sources told Business Recorder that the Foreign Secretary had briefed the Cabinet, after his last visit to New Delhi, that the Commerce Minister would discuss trade issues with his Indian counterpart, in Kathmandu, as part of composite dialogue process.
However, background interviews of officials and experts suggest that the Indian Commerce Ministry was about to issue gazette notification of withdrawal of trade concessions to Pakistan under Safta, but the Pakistani officials announced it before time.
Experts argue that signing of Safta was a blunder, as some Commerce Ministry officials were even unaware of the clause under which the agreement was signed.
Sources said Mohammad Azam, a former Joint Secretary and Consul General in Australia, and Additional Secretary Nasim Quershi had proposed several changes in it, saying that some clauses of the agreement were not in favour of Pakistan.
They said that Humayun would announce, in a press conference on Thursday, that when Pakistan has no trade problem with other members of Saarc, why it should have with India.
He would try to convey that India did not remove trade barriers from the very first day and Pakistan had no other option but to take up the issue with his Indian counterpart Kamal Nath.
When an official of the Ministry was asked about what had happened with India, he declined to comment, saying that the Minister had barred them from speaking on this issue, as he was about to tell the truth at a press conference.
"I cannot tell you anything, as the minister has instructed us not to talk with the press," the official maintained. He said that the Minister intended to clear the deck on this issue as Indians were denying of any such action.
Sources cited the example of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) which in its annual report on "significant trade barriers" had said that India''s tariffs remained high, especially in the agriculture sector. US producers'' encounter-tariff and non-tariff barriers that impede their exports, despite the Indian economic reform program initiated in 1991.
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